Tuesday, November 22, 2016

I was away at the weekend at Kirriemuir in Angus for a Retreat
from Moscow Napoleonic event..The weather was very appropriate as Kirriemuir was covered in frost for the game.. Over the two
days 12 gamers attended from the LOGW.All
the scenarios were developed by young Charlie Grant. The figures were supplied by various members
of the group and Steve Rimmer, Dale Smith and Peter Nicholson supplied the vast
bulk of the terrain.The white sheets
were newly ironed by Charlie.

A Saturday scenario - French allies emerge early morning from their bivouacs in a village

On the first day there was a choice of 6 tables with
differing scenarios.Each of the
players played 3 games on a different table.I managed to lose all of my games as my cautious Russian approach did
not work. On the Sunday we played a single huge game – set in an impressive 30
foot long white wilderness.There were 6
Russian forces and 6 French.The
objective of the game was for the French to get the Emperor Napoleon’s sledge across
the table to a pontoon bridge the French were building across the wide
Kalishnikov River.The Russians
objective was simple they had to capture the Emperor.In the last turn my Lithuanian Lancers made a
gallant attempt to seize the Emperor as he neared the almost complete bridge but
they were driven back by Marbot’s skirmishing sledge force.

Angus's militia moving on the French

A retreating French column

Charles Grant Snr positioning his French facing my Jaeger column

It was an enjoyable weekend and the rules adapted from the
simple ACW rules developed by Kevin Calder worked well and were easily picked
up by all the players. My thanks to Charlie
who acted as the hard working rules umpire.My thanks to all those who have got me up to 350,000 views

A duel between Poniatowski and Dombrowski - it disrupted their commands for many turns

Sunday, November 6, 2016

Played my first game of The Men Who Would Be Kings with Angus Konstam at the SESWC on Thursday.

I commanded a British punitive expedition which had to destroy an Afghan village. My force consisted of 2 Sikh sections, a Gurkha section and a Screw gun. Dicing for the leader attributes gave me a Hero of the Empire commanding the screw gun. Angus diced and got truly abysmal leaders for two of his irregular infantry units.

I won by bombarding the village and destroying 3 of the houses. Neither side lost a unit possibly because we misread the rally rules. Overall an enjoyable game - leader quality and attributes are the key to victory under these rules.

The doomed village

The rules - enjoyable

Sikh infantry and screw gun advance

Gurkhas take the commanding hill

My infantry shooting dice - nine ones out of 12 dice

Screw gun smashes another house - well done Haveldar Singh

Angus Konstam has his longer account on his blog at
http://www.edinburghwargames.com/shirani-tochi-valley-1897/